Suzanne
Rating:
Review
Finally, after ten years, Gregory Maguire has written a sequel to Wicked. The question here is whether or not Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West who was killed by Dorothy in the first book, lives on in the form of an unknown son named Liir. Liir himself doesn't know the answer, and the mystery haunts him as the story unfolds. He wanders shiftlessly through life, vaguely searching for his childhood friend Nor, and goes on to develop a rather twisted relationship with the same military that abducted her years earlier. Although the plot isn't as exciting or fast-paced as in Wicked, I enjoyed the tale and felt unexpectedly at home in this gritty, cruel world, with its talking animals, fierce politics, and struggles against oppression. The Wizard is gone, but Mother Yackle, Princess Nastoya, and Glinda are back on the scene, and one character who barely warranted a mention in Wicked becomes a bigwig now. Welcome back to Oz.
Best Line:
"Now that I'm so smart, I know enough not to let on what I want," said the Scarecrow. (pg. 58)
Kim
Rating:
Review
You know, I loved
Wicked. Loved, loved, loved it so much I put it on my Top Ten Best Books Ever list, where it remains to this day. To say I had high hopes for this sequel is an understatement. One can only imagine my disappointment when days turned into weeks in length of time it took me to finish this book. But enough of my drama – this book picks up where
Wicked ended, and since my favorite green-skinned heroine Elphaba was killed by Dorothy, who better to continue the Oz saga than Liir, who may or may not be Elphaba's son? Liir is in a coma for the first half of the book, so the story alternates between pre-coma Liir, and his current comatose state, where he is being cared for at a cloister of nuns. Liir eventually awakens, obviously, or this book would have been firewood in my house, but not in time to save the story. There are a few interesting characters along with way, such as Candle, the girl who helps nurse Liir back to a waking life, and Shell, Elphaba's brother of ill repute, but overall I was saddened that Elphaba's legacy turned out to be the very boring Liir. I'm going to venture a guess that there will be another book after this one (a sequel to a sequel???) after the way this story ended too. I hold out hope that Book 3 is better than 2.
Best Line:
"A notion of character, not so much discredited as simply forgotten, once held that people only came into themselves partway through their lives."
